Issue - meetings

Purpose of the report:

To respond to concerns raised by Select Committee Members that a Surrey County Council run children’s home (SC040628), previously judged to be ‘good’ at its last full inspection in May 2021, had been judged to have ‘declined in effectiveness’ at an interim inspection conducted in February 2022 and that Members were not notified of this inspection outcome prior to the published report being covered in the local news media.

Witnesses:

Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children and Families

Rachael Wardell, Executive Director – Children, Families and Learning

Tina Benjamin, Director – Corporate Parenting

Jo Rabbite, Assistant Director – Children’s Resources

Mike Stringer, Head of External Communications

Key points raised in the discussion:

1. The Chairman sought clarification regarding the number of Surrey County Council (SCC) run children’s homes which had been closed. The Executive Director explained that SCC used to run ten children’s homes but following the recent closure of a home in February 2022, they now run nine. There had been one closure of a Surrey County Council run home. There had also been a closure of another children’s home in Surrey which was privately run.

2. The Executive Director introduced the report, explaining that internal communication procedures had already been amended following the situation. It had been agreed that any newly published reports for Council-run children’s homes would be brought to the meetings of the Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) and the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee (CFLLC Select Committee). However, due to the infrequent meeting cycles it was subsequently decided that this approach was insufficient, and Members would now be updated through the Members’ portal. The Executive Director clarified that the report to the Select Committee had been commissioned to cover one Council run children’s home. Since the production of this report, a report on another Council run children’s home had been published and it was posted on the Members’ portal. The previous inspection outcome of that home was outstanding, and it was now rated as good.

3. A Member sought clarification regarding the closure of three privately-run children’s homes outside of Surrey, which housed looked after children from Surrey and had recently closed. The Executive Director confirmed that this was the case.

4. The Cabinet Member apologised to the Members about the lack of communication regarding the closure of the children’s home. The Cabinet Member explained that Children’s Services acted in the best interest of the young people living there at the time and action had since been taken to prevent future inadequate communication happening again.

5. The Chairman took the Member questions submitted at item 4 as part of the main item. As a supplementary question to question one of item 4, a Member asked which Council officer read and assessed the Regulation 44 reports for non-Council run children’s homes. The Director explained that the Gateway to Resources team, which was part of the wider Commissioning team, completed this as part of their quality assurance work. The Member queried whether they were read on a monthly basis. The Director clarified that they were not read monthly by the Gateway team, but they were read regularly by the social work teams.

6. The Member asked, as a supplementary to question two, about the action taken and by whom if there was a concerning Regulation 44 (Independent Monitoring Visit) report. The Director explained that it was dependent on the nature of the concern. It was likely to be the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21